Knitting IS my therapy.

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Originally uploaded by allycupe

I’m knitting up a storm here in cold, dark, rainy Germany. I am just finishing up a delightful pair of socks for Elijah. I really like the way these knit up. They are from More Sensational Socks (of course). But the reason I’m so excited it because after these socks I am knitting a pair of mitts from the movie Twilight. Bella Mittens Pattern..go over to subliminalrabbit’s blog and get it for FREE. This girl can really write a pattern.

I asked Emmett today if that made me cool. You know seeing a movie, and then knitting the pair of mitts one character was wearing on the screen for like 4 minutes. Of course he said that he can’t imagine anything cooler. (when he said it, it sounded like ‘oh god, you’re such a loser’ but I know what he meant). So I’m rushing through this pair of socks with a determination I haven’t had for knitting in a long time. Funny how your passion can get turned up again….

Elijah wanted the socks to be knee highs but we settled on the length in the photo. I love the colour, the pattern ROCKS and although I’m thoroughly enjoying the renewed passion for knitting I can’t wait to be done to move onto the mitts.

Aw man the above post is brought to you by Flickr, I’m trying to see how the posts look when you upload directly from there. But if you forget anything you have to come back to wordpress and redo it anyways. I forgot to mention the 50 Euro sewing machine I’m getting from a family who is moving back to the States. I know it’ll be a god year before I can get one so I’m buying one off them. And when I can get my fancy machine, this one can be Nad’s.

I should probably bump into walls more…

I’m not sure why I don’t notice some things that others notice.  I like to think that I’m just above the superficial things in life and that I’m so advance emotionally that I live life on a different level but I think that illusion is leaving the building.  For the second time this school year a mom at my child’s school has given birth and I had NO IDEA SHE WAS PREGNANT!   She’s not a big girl either.  Just a regular mom.  Now in my defense she now has FOUR kids under the age of 6 so it’s not like you see her and think ‘wow, just about time for another baby!’ and she’s really tall so she probably carries in a way that doesn’t show that much.  But DAMN, how do I completely miss someone being pregnant.  I am really one of those great friends who can say honestly that you can gain 20 pounds and I won’t notice.  On the flip side, you can lose 20 pounds and that doesn’t register either.  However I can spot hand knit socks at 100 yards so I have other skills.

Speaking of knitting it’s time to pick up the sticks again, I really haven’t been doing a lot of it lately.  My youngest and most delightful child has decided that the only socks he can wear are homemade Mommy socks.  So cute…but he only has three pair that fit and two of them have holes in them.  Last night the only way we got him to sleep was to promise that we would look all night for his green Mommy socks.  Um,  we didn’t.  This morning when said socks were still missing there was a melt down of epic proportions.  Fortunately for Mommy I happened to find them at the final moments before I had to stick him in the van screaming but it was close.  By the way, I totally realize how crazy that sounds, don’t judge me.   So I’m going down to my yarn stash and I’m going to start some new ones for him today.  He’s my favorite kid (the other is down stairs faking sick to skip school and the other one said ‘yes’ when i asked if i looked fat in my summer shorts yesterday) so I think he deserves some new socks!

Oh and can I just add that the remake of Melrose Place looks a MILLION times better than the new 90210.  I’m still 13, shut up.

Sushi night in Canada.

So “N” desperately wanted to make sushi.  Since there is no family thing this weekend for Thanksgiving I figured what the hell.  We made vegetable sushi and salmon maki.  We also made Orange Chicken teriyaki with homemade teriyaki sauce and vegetable tempura from scratch.  It was AWESOME.  I think I’ll make the kids sushi for their lunches (just without the raw fish).  What a great supper.  Here’s us making the rolls. Elijah “helped” by coming over and eating the rolls as we made them.

Tomorrow night I’m making Cornish Game Hens instead of a turkey with wild rice stuffing and mashed potatoes.  I love cooking.  I need to win the lottery so I can really go whole hog.

Winning IS everything.

Yippee! I just went and picked up my prize at The Bounce radio station! I am now the proud owner of Jamie Oliver’s new book Cook with Jamie.  He’s hot and he was one of my old pretend boyfriends, I think I’ll put him back on the ‘active’ list.

And an 8 inch saute pan that is EXTREMELY heavy.  I love it!

I love winning things.

I still have uber hurting knee from volleyball but I played last night and we WON! I was like a giselle out there….well a giselle that has a bum knee.

Sunday is Emmett’s birthday.  Sunday is the Western final with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Emmett’s birthday happens every year.  The Roughriders in the playoffs is such a rarity that I’m sure he has no problem with his mother being WAY more excited about the game than his stupid birthday which just shows people how old I am.  This is the world.  This is me.  This is the world revolving around me….. don’t worry, he’s used to it.

My secret pal is spying on me….

I’ve spent the morning searching the house for the cameras. A couple of days ago I was finishing off N’s sock (the knee high in pink) with a short row toe and I was searching madly for stitch holders. I found 2 out of the 900 million (or so) that I’ve had over the years. I did find a package of yucky plastic ones and ended up using them to mark my spot….(sorry that totally makes me think of Frankie the dog who is still peeing like a girl..when do boy dogs start lifting their legs?) I thought I would order some (and did) from a etsy sight but I only got two sets because a. I was being cheap and b. I thought I’d find some locally. I would like to have a few sets for the many projects I have going.

So anywhooooo, I get to the mailbox yesterday and what do I find….a SECRET PAL package! And inside there was some beautiful sock yarn that is telling me that it would like to live on my niece’s feet who is turning 25 this December and has been bugging me for a pair. There is also two balls of the cutes ‘thick and thin’ wool handpainted by Jan Gilray which I’ve fondled at my LYS but never bought so I’m excited to see what I can knit up with it, also a book called Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down by Cathy Carron which I’ve never seen before but since all the sweaters I’ve ever made end up being vests this is probably the find of the century for me….and finally, a set of the cutest stitch markers which lead me to the frantic searching of my house to see where the camera is hidden. Thanks Secret Pal you ROCK!

OOO and the other day I made chicken pot pie from scratch….yep from boiling the chicken to the pastries…..here’s photographic proof!

Oh and stupid teenager DOES smile every year whether he needs it or not…it usually is brought on by his brother. Here they are at Granny’s birthday, geez, I love my kids.

Don’t know what the hell is wrong with the camera I am assuming it’s NOT a user issue.

Imitation the highest form of flattery.

I’ve been inspired by a fellow blogger who is

1. Much funnier than me

and

2. Clearly insane.

Her blog is Mom2my6Pack and she wildly popular after a side splitting ebay auction. I’ve been reading her for a bit and I truly appreciate her humor…and the fact that she has “got it” when it comes to raising kids. It’s not about oneupmanship (which keeps my number of Mommy friends to a minimum because I don’t care if little LeDonna is potty trained at 6 months I’m happy when Elijah doesn’t shit on the floor in front of company) it’s about having the same number of kids when you come home as you did when you went out. Today she was talking about naming your kid and it got me thinking….I know, SHOCKING! I remember when I was pregnant with the Stupid Teenager. I poured of books and read cultural references to make sure I named him something with meaning. I wanted the name to start with the letter E because it stood for excellence and I heard Bill Cosby talk about how that’s why he named all his kids with the letter E, I thought it was deep. (shut up i was 21). I wanted the name to sound great on a kid as well as an adult. I wanted to be sure it sounded fantastic as a judge and wasn’t easily converted into a name where your only vocational choice would be to grease up and add a sock to your package…. I made sure I was naming him after great men in various walks of life. So how did I come up with his name…

So he knows what possible Justice Emmett Hall

So he knows how to laugh Emmett Kelly

So he knows where he’s from Emmett Till

So he buys his Momma a house…and because I’m a rabid football fan Emmitt Smith

Of course this was all contigient on the length of the labour and the circumference of his head. Cause if the short labour/small head ratio had been off I was naming him Shirley.

Oh yeah, it’s a KNITTING blog….

Yes! I finished N’s socks BEFORE the first day of school! She then chose NOT to wear them…..ingrate! Oh well she wore them this morning, apparently she was ’saving’ them to wear today…yeah yeah whatever. I’ve already cast on another pair but these ones are going to be knee socks. She’s lucky I’m addicted to knitting and her excitement of trying them on while knitting is enough to guarentee she’ll be kept in handmade socks until her feet fall off.

Pattern: More Sensational socks Seeded Ribbing with heel flap and short row toe.

Yarn: On live Supersocke Cotton in Beach

Stop reading my blog and go hug your kid.

So I was going to write this post about the sad death of my friends son. I was going to talk about sweet Austin and how at 19 he fought a battle against cancer for two years that would had brought grown men to their knees. I was going to tell you all about the sweet boy who in the middle of the night would walk his sister, Sandra home after she had stayed out past curfew at my house with her best buddy, my son. I was going to tell you of the nights that my son, trying to be a gentleman would walk Sandra home only to have Austin walk him home because he would be too scared to come back by himself. I was going to talk about my friend Heather talking to me about how she was writing down the songs her baby wanted played at his memorial. I was going to talk of their amazing streghth during a horrific experience. I was going to be poetic and insightful. But I’m not. I’m going to use every ounce of my being to be thankful and grateful that I have one more day with my kids.

Oh Nathan!!!

Just so you know…I’m very popular. I’m world-wide. I’m epic.

AntiM

You can read the whole thing and learn slightly too much about everything including yarn and the sex life of an older (sorry Marin) and wiser (as apology for the older comment, not cause it’s necessarily true) woman who is STILL gettin’ more than you or you can check the footnotes….

see what you started?

Yarn sale….

Now there’s two words that sound perfect together. Saturday was the annual Ewe Asked for it sale (no website, darn!) It starts at 8 in the morning and I like to get there before they open because 1. I’m a geek and 2. The most interesting people are always there first thing (stop laughing). This year I could not go right away as I had to drive the oldest offspring to summer school (I threatened him with summer school if he didn’t get his math mark up and he didn’t so off to school he goes for most of July INCLUDING a Saturday) You know of course, that it would end up being the Saturday of my favorite yarn sale as to totally infiltrate MY life. Anyhoo…..I got there by about 8:30 and bought yarn. Very simple. I’m a sane girl. How else would it go?

Everything in the store was FORTY PERCENT OFF. Okay that’s not true some stuff was 50% or 75% and the trek sock yarn was only 15%….but everything else was 40%. I hyperventilated a little, I may have forgot to wipe drool of my chin, I for sure elbowed a cute little European lady who got too close to the sock wall but all in all I bought yarn. Very simple.

Pics to follow tomorrow, I also have a new bike basket and Scotty’s socks are done. I’m dizzy from too much sun and going to bed.